Re: Ideas for splithost, hostname, multiemail in Logwatch 8.0

MrC wrote:
> 
> 
> Mike Tremaine wrote:
>> I sat down [finally] and looked through these commandline switches to 
>> try and bring some order to it. Here is what I see
>>
>> --splithost creates a loop for each detected host in the logs.
>>
>> --multiemail can only work with split host and allows you to send each 
>> part of the splithosts report to different addresses.
>>
>> --hostname is sort of messed up logwatch pulls hostname from a POSIX 
>> call but you can define it. And if you use the secret --hostlimit 
>> command it will only make a report for hostname.
>>
>> So that is 4 piece to the host report puzzle.
>>
>> Here is my rough draft please comment.
>>
>> Remove all the above.
>>
>> Make --hostlimits [none, splithosts, splitemails, limithost:??]
>>
>> none is default and logwatch does it's thing as normal.
>>
>> splithost trips the old splithost feature.
>>
>> splitemail is splithost with multiemails.
>>
>> limithost is hostlimit but I'd like to have it define the host(s) to 
>> limit the report to. I though maybe a special character like ":" could 
>> be add followed by the hostname you want. Then I thought why not allow 
>> a list? So would it be easier to add another config option to list the 
>> hostname(s) or is keeping the config options to a minimum the based 
>> approach?
>>
>> I think [and I might be wrong] that --hostlimits 
>> "limithost:server1,server2" is a valid option command and I could 
>> obvious split on : and then split for , and get the targets. An empty 
>> limithost would obviusly be for the hostname provide by the POSIX call.
>>
>> -Mike
>>
> 
> Hi Mike,
> 
> I'm not sure I see the need for the option layering.
> 
> What is the purpose of --hostlimits none ?  Since this is the default 
> behavior, it is equivalent to not specifying the option at all.  Is this 
> to allow overriding a config file setting ?
> 

Yes. Say you stick Hostlimits splithosts in your logwatch.conf but then 
you want to fire off a one time report --hostlimits none.

> It seems like there's an unnecessary overlap of functionality with 
> --output mail and --limithost splitemail.  Wouldn't this be equivalent 
> to --output mail --splithost ?  Since one must pre-configure email 
> addresses for per-host emails, this seems redundant.

No because splithosts does can still be print to file or stdout. But 
splitemails must be --output mail [so I will add a logic switch to force 
output mail when --hostlimits splitemails.]

> 
> It think *how* the reports are split should be distinct from *where* the 
> reports go (email, file, screen), and distinct from email address 
> specification.
> 
> I would suggest something along the lines of :
> 
> --splithost
>   per-host reports.
> 
> --splithost --output mail
>   same as above, but mail separate reports as configured in the config
>   file.
> 
> --splithost --output mail --mailto "host1:email1 host2:email2"
>   same as above, but uses specified per-host email addresses.
> 
> --hostlist host1,host2,host3
>   unsplit reports on only hosts host1, host2, and host3
>   and --hostlist is a new option.
> 
> --splithost --hostlist host1,host2,host3
>   same as above, but split by host.
> 
> Lists can be comma or whitespace separated (protected with quotes as 
> necessary for the shell, as I've shown above in the examples).
> 
> As a personally preferance, I think --reportbyhost is clearer than 
> --splithost, but I won't --splithairs.
> 

Ok good input. I was trying to get them all under 1 switch because we 
have had a tendency to feature grow the available switches and people 
forgot how to use them all.

Anyone else have an opinion?

-Mike